Sears family timeline Family together again
Spotsylvania County man quickly bonds with the German daughter he didn't meet until she was 59
Date published: 9/24/2008
By CATHY DYSON
After all the time they've been apart, father and daughter are more than willing to cross an ocean to see each other.
Milton Sears and Bärbel Hoeldtke are happy together, whether they're talking about everyday events in his Spotsylvania County kitchen or looking at photo albums at her home in northwestern Germany.
He enjoys a bond that formed between them so quickly, it surprised him. She feels complete, like she has finally found the part of her that was missing.
But because the two didn't meet until she was 59, both wonder what their lives might have been like.
A certain sadness hangs in the air, until both acknowledge they need to focus on the time they have left.
"I'm only glad to find you," Hoeldtke said to Sears, who's 80, as she sat on the couch beside him. "I feel like I know you all my life."
The two, who were featured in The Free Lance-Star this spring, met for the first time in April when Sears flew to Germany. Hoeldtke returned the favor this month, when she and her husband and daughter came for a three-week visit.
Sears fell in love with Hoeldtke's mother, Ursula, when he was stationed in Germany after World War II. He didn't know she was pregnant when he returned to Virginia.
Ursula wrote him several letters, but never got an answer. Sears found them after his mother died in 1994; she'd kept them from him because she didn't approve of the relationship.
Hoeldtke regularly asked for information about her father, but was told nothing more than that he was an American soldier.
Ursula revealed his name in 1997, and Hoeldtke--who was married with three children by then--and her family began what turned into an 11-year search to find Sears.
A German television station that specializes in reuniting families contacted both of them, and the two made plans to meet.
Both were excited and nervous. Sears told his daughter he'd be wearing a "USA" hat when he got off the plane in Germany, and Hoeldtke brought her whole family to meet him.
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1943: Milton Sears, 16, leaves the Chesapeake area of Virginia to fight in World War II.
1946: In Germany, he falls in love with Ursula, an interpreter in the office where he investigates Nazi war crimes.
AUGUST 1948: Sears is sent stateside, unaware that Ursula is pregnant with his child.
APRIL 1949: Ursula gives birth to a baby girl, Bärbel. Ursula writes Sears several letters, but never gets a response.
1994: Sears discovers, after his mother's death, that she kept Ursula's letters from him.
1997: After Bärbel begged her mother for years for information about her father, Ursula reveals his name. Bärbel's son, Stephan, begins the search for him.
JANUARY 2008: A German TV station connects the father and daughter, who talk to each other for the first time.
APRIL 2008: Sears meets his daughter in Germany.
SEPTEMBER 2008: Bärbel and family visit Fredericksburg. |
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Date published: 9/24/2008
Most recent reader comments:
What a Shame
(posted by
spotsydebbie
, Sep. 24, 2008 9:21 am)
What a shame that Mr. Sears' mother kept Ms. Hoeldtke's letters from him. A daughter lost almost a whole lifetime with her father because of a mother's selfishness. I hope this article will convince some mothers who are interfering in their childrens' lives to back off. At least they finally got the chance to know each other and I hope God grants them all many more happy years together!
Endorsement
(posted by
fredsuxx
, Sep. 24, 2008 7:56 am)
i hope Mr. Sears is getting paid well for that DC Honda Ad
on FLS.
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